Rate Smith's 154*

[honestbharani]

England were bowling extremely well to him for long periods of time earlier in the day. The reason it was so poor in the latter part was because Smith blunted the attack brilliantly.

It wasn't a chanceless innings by any means. However, if he had been out lbw after a ball pitched well outside off, turned a ridiculous amount (measured by hawkeye as around a metre on hitting the stumps compared to had it not turned) and hit his pads, it would have been extremely unlucky. Equally, it would have been extremely unlucky after such a brilliant innings had he been run out by his running partner's stupidity- because don't forget it was de Villiers who set off for the suicidal single. Only the glove which England didn't appeal for was a genuine slice of luck, other than several play+misses, at Anderson in particular, early in the innings.

For showing balls of reinforced steel, on an awkward pitch, with the crowd baying for his wicket and all his teammates falling all around him, with a history of "choking" often talked of, i'd rank it up there in the top 3 innings i've ever seen. Absolutely fantastic stuff from Smith.

sounds like I have missed a wonderful innings..



bloody pay TV..

 

[Top_Cat]

sounds like I have missed a wonderful innings..



bloody pay TV..

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too; wish I'd seen it, looks like it was a ripping knock.

 

[pasag]

It wasn't really entertaining though. Just sort of accumulated the runs and before you knew it he had a ton. Don't get me wrong it was a brilliant knock in how important it was but it wasn't really anything special from a 'must see' perspective, IMO.

 

[Top_Cat]

It wasn't really entertaining though. Just sort of accumulated the runs and before you knew it he had a ton. Don't get me wrong it was a brilliant knock in how important it was but it wasn't really anything special from a 'must see' perspective, IMO.

You'd expect anything else from a member of the SA top-order?

 

[tooextracool]

Good innings no doubt, as can be deciphered from the scorecard, but not good enough to deserve a thread of its own. If you want a good innings by Smith, this one at Basin Reserve takes the cake:
http://www.howstat.com.au/cricket/Statistics/Matches/MatchScorecard.asp?MatchCode=1710

Personally, dont think he played that well against England, he had a fair few close shouts and should have been out at least a couple of times. Further more, I am still trying to decipher why England bowlers (Anderson in particular) continue to bowl outswingers to him when we all know that his real weakness (as B.lee has exposed) is against inswingers.

 

[Richard]

Er what? That's like saying, had the bowlers bowled properly they would have gotten him out. Dude, you take this stuff too far and it ends up sounding like non sense.

Umpires' decision lucky, sure? Fielders, no. It's a lack of ability/consistency of the fielders; not of the batsman having more luck.

Haha... whether it goes into the fielder's hands and is caught and the Umpire doesn't give it or is dropped is no different whatsoever as far as what the batsman's done is concerned. His action is exactly the same.

Neither are anything remotely like saying if the bowlers bowled "properly" they would have got him out.

 

[Richard]

It wasn't a chanceless innings by any means. However, if he had been out lbw after a ball pitched well outside off, turned a ridiculous amount (measured by hawkeye as around a metre on hitting the stumps compared to had it not turned) and hit his pads, it would have been extremely unlucky. Equally, it would have been extremely unlucky after such a brilliant innings had he been run out by his running partner's stupidity- because don't forget it was de Villiers who set off for the suicidal single. Only the glove which England didn't appeal for was a genuine slice of luck, other than several play+misses, at Anderson in particular, early in the innings.

Having undertaken a re-examination, I think I agree with that.

Just one genuine let-off for mine.

 

[NUFAN]

8.5 out of 10.

Smith is a great 4th innings batsmen, I was saying to my mates I reckon Smith will top score, annoyed I didn't put some money on it.

 

[Richard]

You'd expect anything else from a member of the SA top-order?

A Kallis innings rarely fails to be a thing of attractiveness, IMO.

Amla and ABdeV in their totally different ways are generally memorable too.

 

[Smith108]

You'd expect anything else from a member of the SA top-order?

It was an exellent Innings given the situation, but with the form the South Africans are in as a team, it could easily have been Prince or Mckenzie getting that 150 to lead the team to victory.

 

[The Baconator]

They might have gotten 150, but they'd probably have only just finished. Smith was able to kinda force the pace more than any of the other South Africans might have done, part of what made it a really good innings.

Agree totally with Saggers as well, barely noticed he was closing in on the century till I looked at the scoreboard and saw he was in the 90s.